Memories
by HappyLeifEricsonDay
Summary: Danny wakes up in Vlad's lab and something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong. (Post PP. Bit of DxS.) (WARNING: Heavy spoilers in the reviews)
1. Chapter 1

Okay so I've said before that all my DP fics take place in the same timeline as each other. Well... **NOT** this one.

This is post Phantom Planet, but operates on the idea that Vlad eventually returned.

Please review. ^_^ Reviews are my life-source. Without them I wither and die.

* * *

**Chapter One**

x - x - x

My eyelids open slowly. So very heavy. I raise my head, like a boulder on my neck. The sensation of my muscles moving is strange and unfamiliar.

A gasp of oxygen fills my lungs and it is sweet.

I am standing. Back pressed against something cold and hard. This is wrong.

My ears are ringing, and there might be voices somewhere nearby. But they're bleeding into the beeping noises and nothing is real.

The gray-green world swirls in and out of focus, and the dull light is blinding. I close my eyes.

I'm not wondering where I am now but where I was before. I reach out for the dream I just left but it's slipping away through my fingers. I can't recall what it feels like to grasp something in my hand.

_The stark purple color of amethyst under running water, a mere inch from my own eyes. _That was a part of my dream, but which part?

I strain, struggling with the rush of images leaping out at me. As one floats past I grab at it, try to focus on it.

_Hot sticky leather under my legs and hands, on my left is a pale face and a splash of soft orange, behind her a square of glass where the world races by. Leans toward me across the leather smiling, reaching, pointing, pointing at something on a page inside of a … a…_ the word for what she holds escapes my memory.

_Wind and cold white mist racing past my face, reflective silver squares far, far below, littered with patches of black and green and brown, and tiny moving dots, then deep blue all around me, brilliant yellow light streaming down through the mist…_

But the more I reach for it the further the images fall away. I cannot name the faces that flicker so swiftly past my closed eyelids.

I open my eyes again. The gray world is more focused than before. My mind searches for terms to describe what I see around me. Florescent lights, blinking monitors, clean steel surfaces, tiled floor. _Hospital_ my mind supplies, but as I glance around more a better term surfaces, called _Lab. _I do not know how I know these words.

_Hsss._ The sound of metal releasing. I feel my arms go slack, and then my waist. I did not realize I was being held up by restraints. My legs stumble forward, and I reach up and catch the edge of this metal cylinder I've been standing – _sleeping? – _in. My limbs feel like jelly. I know how to walk but cannot conjure a memory of taking a step.

Silence in the room, other than the steady beeping of whatever machine lines the other wall. The air on my open eyes and filling my lungs feels more real than anything I've known.

Flashes, faces. Colors, mostly. _Sparks of neon green crackling like fire, speeding away from me. Bright bulky orange and slender periwinkle, looming in a doorway, stepping closer. Dark brown, laughing hard, flashing a glowing screen at me across the speckled tabletop._

All I can remember are these. These fleeting senses and pictures that I cannot name. They are all I can remember and yet I know they were a dream. Dulled and dim in comparison to the starkness of reality now that I am awake. Yet instead of fading like dreams do, they linger in my mind, flitting around like so many fireflies. Why?

Quickly I can feel strength coming into my limbs as I lean against the metal frame. I brush white hair back from my eyes. The motion is familiar and yet unfamiliar.

"Ah, young Daniel is awake at last." A deep voice, precise and mannered, echoes from an intercom somewhere above me. Far from startling me, the sudden voice assures me. It wakens a spark of familiarity somewhere in me, and spikes some of the lingering senses from my dream. "Try to relax, Daniel. I'll be right down." A fizzling clicking noise and the intercom shuts off.

As I begin to feel more fully awake, shaking off the haziness of sleep, I study my surroundings more. I feel as if I have been here before. Though I'm not sure of _anywhere_ that I've been before.

_A long tiled hallway, shining lockers on each side. One closes with a screech and behind it is a smile I know. _

_Gritty sand beneath my feet, hot sun on my back, glinting off the waves, cold water washes in and buries me waist-deep, a voice calls out and someone unseen splashes me from behind._

There are several more metal cylindrical containers like the one I've just stumbled out of. All are empty, except the last one my eyes fall upon. I move my legs numbly forward. I look into the mirror. No, it isn't a mirror. Why did I think the word 'mirror?'

The person inside this metal container is held by restraints the way I was. His head hangs limply down, chin against his chest, white hair spilling forward like a waterfall. I lean down slowly, cocking my head to the side curiously, trying to see his face.

"Daniel! The man of the hour."

_Daniel. _I feel that must be my name but it wakens no surge of familiarity.

I straighten, looking to the door which has just sprung open. There's an amiable face there to match the amiable tone of voice. My gears whir into hyper speed once more, flooding my waking mind with dreamed images.

_Bright black rings of light splitting, then white, floating, laughing. Neon green flying away from me, fire from my hands._

"Who are you?" I ask, though I feel that somehow I already know. My vocal chords are raw.

A grin spreads across the man's face. "Of course, I forgot that your memories would be a bit… _scrambled_ at first. Do not worry, my boy. Everything will become clear. My name is Vlad. And I am your father."

_Vlad. _A sudden rush of sensory images floor me. _Vlad- _The memory of how the name felt coming out of my throat, the feeling of hatred. _VLAD._ Searing, biting, anger. Attached to that face. The emotion is there and vivid, but it feels somehow dim at the same time, like a fire that someone is smothering with a thick blanket.

As Vlad steps forward across the room, I step back, confused by my instinctual reaction. My back hits one of the metal containers, this one closed off with glass. I stare up at him, trying to reconcile the rush of images. "_Vlad," _I spit out. I do not know much, but I can feel a hatred for him resonating deep in my bones, somewhere under the haze in my mind. Where it comes from is beyond my grasp of reasoning. "_You are not my father." _I don't know where my words come from but as I say them I know them to be true.

Vlad simply laughs. "I will let that slide. You're confused now, and for good reason. I assume the memories you're experiencing must be quite conflicting."

"Memories?" I ask absently, thinking of those vivid dreams.

There is a twinkle in his eye, a mischievous smile. "Yes. Memories, Daniel."

I blink at him. _Memories_. The word takes shape in my mind and it has no meaning. I have no memories, only vague ghosts of a dream.

"I will explain it in terms you can understand in your fragile state of mind. Of course, I _wanted_ to leave you with _only _the memories suitable to my purposes. A clean slate, if you will. But I couldn't very well get rid of the rest of them and leave you with the mental development of a toddler. There simply wasn't a way to get rid of some without losing them all, so I think I will find that this way was better than the alternative. I have ah – how should I put it? – _dimmed _some of the less _important _memories."

"I don't understand."

"You will," he said, his smile growing still wider, "in time, Daniel."

_Daniel_. I can summon no memories bearing the name Daniel.

. . . . .

I sit upright on a cold aluminum table.

Vlad is standing at the monitor next to my table, typing as I answer his questions.

"Daniel, could you please demonstrate for me your control over ectoplasm once more? I shall be taking a reading this time."

I look down at my hands. White gloves. I send a spark of energy coursing through my veins, and watch as it erupts from my palms, a glowing ball of green light. It is one of the things that, since waking, I have come to remember quite clearly. It comes as naturally to me as breathing and walking. The ectoplasm swirls around ceaselessly, an eerie crystal ball in my hands.

"Yes, very good, you can stop now."

I release the energy, letting it evaporate away into the air. I watch Vlad, attempting to coalesce the drifting images I have of him. It's difficult. The half-memories attached to him are conflicting. He has told me I should not trust the emotions attached to my memories, as they would be scrambled and misleading. I try to imagine that the unwarranted rush of hate I feel when I look at Vlad's face is unreal. A mere by-product of scrambled memories.

It's difficult.

Vlad comes over to me and attaches a set of sticky rubber pads to the sides of my forehead, connected to his machine by thin cords. "Right, now would you mind changing form for me once more? This is the last time, I promise."

I gaze idly about the room for what feels like the five thousandth time. So blank and uniform in its clean, stainless laboratory environment. I search within my range of vocabulary, still slowly coming back to me, for a word to describe what I am feeling about these proceedings. One surfaces above the others. _Boredom_.

But I nod. I reach under all the cold for that familiar warm sensation. This, like the ectoplasm, is one of the memories that surfaced so clearly. It is as inherent to me as the beating of my heart. Bright rings of light spread vertically across my body and my black jumpsuit disappears. What is left is a pair of soft blue pants and a matching shirt- _scrubs, _my mind supplies absently. White bangs half-covering my eyes turn to black, and I brush them away with the back of my hand. Vlad has had me demonstrate my transformation at least ten times since I woke a few hours ago.

Vlad nods at the monitor, and I hear the clicking of keys on the keyboard.

If I close my eyes, it is easier to focus on the dreams. Memories, I correct myself. It's hard to think of them as memories when they are so fuzzy and faded. Some have come into sharp relief. Like the ectoplasm, like my transformation, like flying. Things like walking, running, eating, sleeping. But these aren't the ones I'm searching for.

_The stark purple color of amethyst under running water. On eye level with me. Very close._

Which part of the dream was that? An emotion is attached to it this time – anxiety, butterflies, the racing of my heart.

A question bubbles up in my mind, and I speak it before it can drift away. "Why?"

Vlad stops what he is doing and glances over at me. "Why what, Daniel?"

I'm not sure what I meant. "Why… why have you done this? With my memories?"

He drifts over to me from his monitor and peers calculatingly into my eyes for a moment. Then he reaches up and plucks the rubber pads from my head. "Only to save you from yourself, my dear boy."

I do not pretend to understand what he means. "From myself?"

He nods sympathetically, crossing his arms behind his back. "You had gotten so _many_ foolish ideas into your head. It really is better this way. I know you are confused, but you will come to understand. And you will come to love me. Son." He emphasizes the last word, a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Son.

_A heavy clap on my shoulders. _

_Stepping sneakily down the staircase. Still dark outside. Brightly lit green tree with colored boxes underneath. A mountain of red and white jumps out from behind the corner and swings me off my feet, twirling me around and around._

The images were more sudden and vivid this time. I definitely saw a face. I look up into Vlad's and am disappointed when it is not the face that flew to mind when I heard the word 'son.'

. . . . .

"Can I come with you?" I ask Vlad as he heads toward the laboratory door. I grow increasingly tired of this stainless steel atmosphere. If my sense of time can be trusted I would say I have been awake now for maybe eight hours. And I feel if I could only look at a world with brighter colors that I could spark some of these buried memories just out of my reach.

He pauses and looks at me, and the look on his face is somewhat triumphant. "All in good time, Daniel. For now I need you to remain here. My top priority is assuring that your health is in the best of conditions. Once we've ascertained that, then the world shall be our oyster. Patience, lad."

With that the steel door screeches closed behind him. I sigh, and jump down off the steel table. He must trust me not to mess with all his machines. I have the urge to, when I look at them, but I refrain from doing so. Something tells me it's a bad idea.

As it always does when Vlad leaves, my attention turns to the least boring thing in the room. The one occupied metal pod. His head is now lolling to the left, his snowy hair still askew, hiding his face. I lean in very closely, pausing in my breaths subconsciously as if I am afraid I might wake him. I press the palm of my hand to his chest. First nothing. Then, slowly, his chest rises against my hand. _Breathing. _Don't know what I expected. I stand there feeling the steady motion of his breaths for a solid five minutes, my curiosity bursting. My hand moves to his forehead and I am push it back so that it leans against the solid metal wall of his containment. I stare at his face.

Flash.

_Leaning over a white sink, spitting minty paste into it. Looking up, into my own eyes. Deep arctic blue._

_The feeling of splitting, in my mind and in my body. Struggling, straining. Success. Looking into my own eyes, both sets triumphant. Before one pops and I am left feeling tired, so tired. I'll try again tomorrow…_

His face is slack, his eyes closed. _Mirror. _The word comes to mind without my permission again.

I do not understand.

I don't understand why this face stirs up a million memories underneath the hazy fog in my brain, like dirt kicked up in the bottom of a pond.

When Vlad comes back thirty minutes later, I am back to sitting on the aluminum tabletop.

Before he can set in on the latest test he wants to run, I ask him. "Who is that?" I say, pointing to the sleeping face across the room.

Vlad doesn't have to look where I'm pointing to know what I mean. "Nothing to worry about," he answers. "He was one of my biggest projects."

Project?

"I worked very hard on him you know. But alas, too many things went wrong. I suppose it was never meant to be. However, that's all in the past. I have no real need of him now that I finally have you, Daniel."

Project…

Suddenly one face rises above the others in the cacophony in my mind. _A small feminine face, crazy black hair falling in her eyes, which are wide and crystal blue, staring up at me. _Project_. _

A memory leaps out without warning, like a flare from the sun. _Pain searing through my body, blue rings trying to cross over me. But I'm fighting them, pushing them back, I cannot let them transform me, I cannot… Then a voice, a rough yet small voice rings through the haze of my torture._ _You, are NOT, the BOSS OF ME! Explosive noises, flashes of light, the sweeping flooding feeling of relief. _

I blink away the sudden memory, shocked. It is the first time words have accompanied the images and sensations.

A new word floats up from my subconscious, delivered by the memory. "Clone," I say aloud. "You… you cloned me."

Vlad isn't fazed. He doesn't even look up from the computer he has begun to type at. "Yes, it's true. I cloned you. But it's not something I would worry yourself over, little badger. As I said, it's all in the past now."

I peer at the limp person across the room. _Me, _I think detachedly.

"I will likely destroy him soon, but I'm in no rush."

_Destroy. _It tugs at my heart uncomfortably. Black emotions are tied to the word.

. . . . .


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

x - x - x

The next time Vlad returns he finds me surrounded by a mountain of ice crystals.

"Oh honestly." He sounds annoyed.

I do not look up as he crosses the room, still focusing on the ice currently forming in my hands. I have found many memories in the past hour since Vlad last left me. The ice has acted like a homing beacon, and in using my ice powers I've been able to unearth all sorts of memories related to them.

In fact, many of my foggier memories have begun to sharpen around the edges. If I focus on a face for a long time I can almost see their name taking shape in the darkness of my mind's eye, almost…

_The stark purple color of amethyst under running water._ The face looms before me, shifting as I try to hang onto it. The ice cracks in my hands and I toss it aside onto the pile.

There is a crash somewhere above us, and a shudder runs through the foundations of the laboratory.

Vlad's gaze flies upward, a look of rage crossing his face.

Another massive crash. It sounds as though a wall above us has collapsed. A feral growl escapes from Vlad's throat. Blacks rings appear around his waist and split. I'm shocked as I watch him transform just as I have transformed, and a flood of images fill my mind once more. Memories, some clicking into place. He flies out through the door and I'm left alone again.

I wonder what on earth is happening as I hear the building above me being shaken with huge thumps and small explosive sounds. I slide off the table, deciding to go against what Vlad has warned me of and leave through the same door. For once, he has left it unlocked behind him. It's the only way out, since for some reason the walls are impassible to me in my intangible form. _Shield, _my mind remembers.

As I step cautiously toward the closed door, half expecting Vlad to return and reprimand me, it flies open, banging loudly against the wall.

_"Danny!"_

I almost reel over backwards from the rush of memories. They are not half memories this time, not hazy pictures with half heard words, but full-fledged memories.

Memories surrounding that name. _My name. _Not Daniel, never Daniel- _It's Danny. My name is Danny._ Half a hundred recollections of my name said in this person's voice, this shocked face standing in the doorway, staring at me. His face drags up a thousand memories. So much more vivid than before, now that I see his face here in reality before me. So much more real. They are less like dreams and more like real memories.

The world shifts under my feet and I'm suddenly dizzy. Very lightheaded. Overcome by the mental onslaught, I drop to my knees. I manage to speak the name, to make sure. "Tucker," I say, though it's less of a question and more of a statement.

He's running forward, falling in front of me, gripping my shoulders, shaking me. "Dude, are you okay?"

I look into his eyes, relishing every patch of memory that pops up at random like crackling pockets of oxygen in a fire. My mouth hangs open, and I cannot answer as he shakes me.

"Danny? Danny what did he _do _to you?"

I smile absently at the name. My name. It sounds so right when said in Tucker's voice.

A booming noise above, louder than before. A distant shout. Heavy thudding footsteps on the stairs.

"Oh my god, you found him!" The voice cuts through my dizzy fog. It's a voice like the low thrum of a viola.

My eyes shift into focus as a new face drops down beside Tucker, shoving him aside. "Danny?" she says, "Danny, can you hear me?" Terror colors her voice, which floods me with so many more memories. I'm really reeling now.

But what I'm looking at is her eyes. So close, three inches from mine as her hand touches my face, my forehead, grabs at my shoulders.

_The stark color of purple amethyst under running water._

I smile. "Sam," I say to her, closing my eyes.

I welcome the flood of images now. I can feel them filling up my chest, surfacing from under the fog in my mind. _The feeling of lips against mine, the feeling of her fingers against my fingers. The sound of her laughter. A kiss in the snow, the fear of the world ending completely forgotten, the weight on my shoulders suddenly weightless, subzero temperatures and yet her kiss felt like molten lava in my veins._

Dimly, under all of it, I feel that rush of hatred for Vlad that he assured me was misplaced rise again. I remember that these memories coming back to me now were the ones that Vlad hid from me, and the hatred solidifies, sharpening quickly in my heart like a whetted blade. _Why would he take these memories from me?_

She ignores what I have said. "Tucker, what's wrong with him? What did Vlad do?"

I want to take her face in my hands and kiss her over and over. I cannot believe I have ever forgotten her name. The feel of her head resting against my neck.

"I don't know! He just looked at me all funny and then he collapsed!"

"We have to get him out of here."

"Wait a minute, you left Valerie alone fighting Vlad? Are you stupid?"

"Jazz is still up there!"

Valerie. Jazz. More memories spike. The names attach themselves to faces in the pictures. _Jazz. The splash of soft orange. Valerie. The streak of red and black._

Tucker rolls his eyes.

"Valerie can handle herself against Vlad, Tucker!"

"All the same, we need to split. _Pronto_."

"I know," she growls, grinding her teeth. For some reason, watching the two of them argue fuels even more memories. I seem to have hundreds of short clips in my mind of the two of them disagreeing. They aren't unpleasant memories. I smile again. "But what about Danny? Should we carry him?"

They both look at me uncertainly. I must look like a real mess. I imagine my eyes are glazed over, my face blank and stupid. I shake my head, trying to clear away the onslaught of memories. I will deal with them later. For now my brain is shouting at me something very important. _Go with Sam and Tucker! _I still don't quite know what's going on, but every instinct in my brain and body is shouting this at me.

"I'm.. I'm okay," I manage to say, clutching my head, trying to steady my dizzy spell.

"Can you walk?" Tucker asks, reaching under my arms and heaving my upright.

"Yeah," I answer. "Just a bit… dizzy.. is all."

Unmasked concern is heavy on Sam's face. "What did he do to you Danny?"

I look into her eyes. "I don't know," I say truthfully.

We make toward the lab door and I lean on Tucker for support, the world still swaying dangerously around me.

"Oh, that's sick," Sam snarls behind us. "I thought he was over that creepy idea!"

Tucker and I look back, and see Sam is staring at the man inside the metal pod. "Ew, is that what I think it is?" Tucker asks, as though he were asking about a particularly gross species of insect.

I nod numbly. "A clone," I answer.

"This is so wrong," Sam barks angrily. "Was Vlad trying to get a midmorph DNA sample again Danny? Is that why he kidnapped you?"

Thunderous crashes from above. Tucker and Sam's eyes flit toward the ceiling in alarm.

I try to find a memory attached to her words. _Midmorph DNA. _It sparks something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. "I… don't know," I reply. "Vlad said that it was his failed project. He said he was going to destroy him." The words feel dirty on my lips. I do not like the word 'destroy.' It's a word that belongs in Vlad's mouth.

Tucker looks like he's going to be sick. "This is so messed up," he mutters. "That thing doesn't look like you described them from last time, Danny. You said they were all goopy and unstable. This one just looks.. like a regular person. Like you."

Memories rise with his words. Me, watching a clone disintegrate into a puddle of glowing ectoplasm in front of me. The memory is colored with the feeling of disgust and terror and pity, and above all, hatred for Vlad.

I look at Tucker blankly, unable to give him a proper answer. I shrug my shoulders.

The walls and floor shake violently. We stumble against each other. Then Sam is dragging the two of us toward the door, shouting, "We have to go! Valerie can't possible hold much longer-"

"Wait," I hear myself saying. "Wait!"

They look at me, surprised. "We can't leave him," I say. "Vlad said he would… destroy him."

They stare at me as if I have lost my mind _(Which I have, _a small voice within me says).

Tucker speaks first. "Danny, it's just a _clone!"_

Sam backs him up. "We don't have time Danny. And it's not a real person. You saw the way those other clones fell apart before, they're not even stable."

But I know they're wrong. This clone doesn't match the ones from my memories, the ones that fell to pieces so easily. Tucker and Sam try to pull me towards the door once more but I yank my arm back, stepping backwards.

_A young feminine face, with a not so feminine attitude. She taps me on my left shoulder and when I look over no one is there. I look to my right and there she is, an inch from my face. I jump back, startled, and she laughs herself silly. Man you are such an easy target, she says, wiping a tear from her blue eyes._

I shake my head. I didn't let Vlad destroy his first pet project, and I'd be damned if I was going to let him destroy this one.

Before Sam and Tucker can grab me again I'm running back to the containment chamber. He is still unconscious. Still breathing, unnaturally slow. The metal restraints creak under my hands, but although I am strong they don't break. I take a step back and summon a burst of ice to my fingertips, freezing the steel solid. This time they snap easily in my hands, as brittle as stale bread. He falls forward and I catch him. He is not so heavy as I might have thought. I sling him over my shoulder, where he hangs limply.

Now Tucker and Sam are at my sides again, dragging me toward the door as another booming noise shakes the building above us. "Even when you're completely out of it you have enough sense to play the stupid hero card," Tucker was muttering. But he didn't sound truly annoyed.

We barrel up the stairs, bursting out into what looks like a tornado ravaged living room. A blast of purple light flies by us and collides with the wall, where a woman in a black suit has just dodged out of the way. _Valerie, _I think.

I turn and see Vlad in his ghost form, power surging through him, face contorted with rage. Vlad in all his glory. The low burn of hatred flares into a full-fledged bonfire.

"Jazz, bring the jet around, now!" Sam hisses into an earpiece.

_Jazz. _I'm hit by a sudden longing to see her face too. Now that I can finally put a name to the memory.

Vlad has yet to have seen us here. He is locked in furious battle with Valerie, who is barely dodging his attacks, barely able to get a shot in edgewise. Seeing him sending blasts after Valerie wakens a murderous rage within me, and I am struck by the sudden urge to unleash the fury of hell on Vlad.

But I'm still carrying the clone over my shoulder. I do not want Vlad to see that I have taken him, do not want him to destroy him. He is unconscious and defenseless. What if he has a mind, what if he has a heart? _Danielle, _I am reminded, and I know I can't let Vlad destroy this.. person. _Not me, _I think, just as Dani is not really me.

I'm still staring at Vlad, trying to decide how I can attack him without drawing attention to the clone hanging over my back, when Sam shakes my shoulder. "Danny?" I blink at her. "Danny I know you're out of it but you need to fly us out of here. Jazz is circling around above us with the jet."

My gaze finds Valerie, still trapped in vicious battle with Vlad.

Tucker notices my concern. "Valerie will follow once we're out of here," he assures me. "Once we're all on the jet we'll turn on the shield, and Vlad won't be able to get at us."

I frown, half because I am unwilling to leave Valerie alone with Vlad. Half because I want to spend this raging fire of anger inside me. Because I want to release it at Vlad.

But I nod. I shift the clone's weight so he is balanced better over my shoulder. I grab onto Sam's arm and she grabs onto Tucker's, and I transfer some of the energy boiling inside my chest to them. One by one we turn intangible and disappear, and then I fly upward through several stories of a mansion.

The blue sky that opens above me as we clear the vaulted roof is the sweetest sight I've ever seen.

. . . . .

I'm sitting on the edge of my bed, in my own bedroom. This place, too, is sparking memories. The more I see the more the memories return. I look around at all the worried faces surrounding me. The memories are out of order, some make more sense than others, and some still are harder to drag to the surface. But they are there and I'm grateful for that much.

The clone lays flat on my bed. He is restless in his sleep now. Instead of the slack unconsciousness that he displayed in Vlad's lab, he now murmurs in his sleep and rolls over every so often. He transformed in his sleep to his human form soon after we arrived in the jet. Looking at his face is eerie and unsettling. I still can't help but think the word 'mirror' when I look at him.

"I just wish we knew what he did to you," Jazz whispers softly.

They had all been questioning me since our return. It had been a shock, a cold splash of water to my face, to see my parents when we arrived home. They seemed worried but my friends steered me upstairs before I could betray the fact that there was something wrong with me. That my memories had been completely screwed up.

I had already told them everything I knew, everything that had happened since I woke up. Their faces were melancholy. I knew they were worried. They didn't like that my memories were messed with. But none of us knew what to do about it.

"Don't worry, guys," I found myself reassuring them, yet again. "The more I see stuff that's familiar, the more my memories are coming back. I'm sure it'll all come back soon."

"Right," Tucker says confidently. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

"Except maybe Vlad, coming after that clone," Sam adds, pointing to the sleeping figure on my bed.

"I couldn't leave him," I defend, thinking of Dani. "Vlad would have destroyed him."

No one argues. I know they all agree with me. But it doesn't help that I'd given Vlad even more of a reason to come after me than he already had before.

The clone stirs in his sleep again, moaning quietly. The look on his face is pained. Everyone looks at him uncertainly.

"You think he's like Dani?" Valerie asks. "You know, Dani-with-an-i?"

"Maybe," I answer. "Maybe not. He could be one of those mindless clones. Or he could be like Dani. I didn't want to take the risk and leave him behind to be melted down by Vlad."

The clone stirs again, tossing his head to the side against the pillow.

"Danny, don't you want to get out of those stupid scrubs?" Jazz asks me.

I glance down, forgetting I had been wearing them. "Oh yeah. Vlad must have put me in them."

I slide off the bed, and as I do the clone rolls all the way over, muttering something unintelligible under his breath. I go over and pull open the top drawer of my dresser, pulling the first t-shirt off the stack. A black one, the cover of one of my video games adorning the front. _Doom 2! _in blocky red letters. I remember buying this shirt at the mall with Tucker, who has a matching one. I relish the memory for the simple fact that I can remember it.

I pull the soft blue shirt up over my head, tossing it aside. I can hear the clone really stirring behind me now. I wonder what on earth we're going to do with him when he wakes up.

"Danny?"

I pause, my arms halfway through the sleeves of my _Doom_ shirt. I look over my shoulder, behind me at Sam, who has just spoken. Her eyes are wide as saucers. Everyone else in the room has fallen silent, and is staring at either me or Sam.

"…What?" I say, stupidly. My arms are still halfway through my sleeve holes. I'm blinkly dumbly at everyone, having completely forgotten I was putting on a shirt. _What are they staring at?_

Sam stands from her place sitting cross-legged on the floor. She steps toward me, almost cautiously. Her eyes growing ever wider, a look of pure alarm crossing her features.

"_What_?" I repeat. She reaches out a hand slowly and rests it on my back, letting her fingers trail downward over my skin. I feel goose bumps rise in the path of her fingers. What is she doing? She is staring at my skin as though I've started growing scales or something.

Everyone is dreadfully silent, except for the clone, whose murmuring grows louder in his sleep.

Sam's gaze flits toward my own eyes, narrowing at me. I'm sure I must look completely lost. She grips my shoulder hard and turns me away from my dresser to face her and everyone else. She grabs the shirt that still half hangs on my arms and rips it away from me.

She stares at the skin on my chest and then glares back up at my eyes, and it seems whatever suspicion she was having has been confirmed. I hear sharp intakes of breath from my friends sitting on the floor behind Sam.

I step backwards, the skin on my back colliding with the open dresser drawer behind me. The looks they're giving me suddenly make me feel like a cornered animal. What is going on?

"Danny," Sam says, her voice dangerously low and leveled. I know this tone of voice all too well on her. It's the tone where she is trying very, very hard not to scream. "Where are your scars?"

I blink stupidly. What?

My eyes flit down to the skin on my chest. I search in my memories for the word _scars. Flashes of pain, various injuries. Searing pain of stitches. Trying to look at my own back in the mirror, trying to see if the big scar was fading yet. Keeping my shirt on at the public pool- rather look like a nerd than explain the scars riddling my chest._

I try to reconcile the memory of scars on my skin with what I'm actually seeing. My skin is clean. Unmarred. I have no scars.

I look up at Sam, my jaw dropping open slightly. "I… I don't…"

She's stepping back, shaking her head at me. Everyone sitting on the floor is slowly rising to their feet, staring at me strangely.

"I don't understand," I tell them. _Why are they looking at me this way?_

Another muffled groan behind everyone, coming from the bed. Louder this time.

Everyone seems to have the same thought at the same time, and their heads all turn to the figure sleeping on my bed as he reaches up his hand and presses it to his forehead. "Uhhggh…"

"D-Danny?" Jazz squeaks, her voice abnormally high-pitched.

His eyes open slowly, blinking, looking over at Jazz. "I feel.. like I got.. hit by a train," he mumbles. "What the hell.. happened?"

He sits up slowly, leaning heavily on his hands. I'm reeling. I don't know what's happening.

He looks up at Tucker, Sam, and Valerie, who are still frozen in shock. He flashes them a smile. "I'm fine guys… really." He coughs into his hand. "Why do you all," he coughs, "look like you've.. seen a ghost?"

His eyes finally fall on me, where I'm still falling back against the dresser. They widen. "What the…" His head whips around toward his friends questioningly. Jazz seems to come to her senses, and leans over toward the person on my bed. She lifts his shirt up, and we all stare at the scars decorating his chest numbly. "What the- what are you doing?" he says, shoving Jazz's hands away. "What the hell is going on right now?" His volume is rising with alarm.

All of my friends are staring at me. Accusing. Distrusting. Narrowing their eyes, and stepping back.

At last, I think I understand.

As Danny stumbles to his feet from the bed, I trigger my transformation, more of a gut reaction that anything else. I turn intangible and lunge forward. I pause at the wall, glancing back at the faces I have loved. Purple amethyst eyes search the room, as if she could see me when I'm invisible. I want to look at them longer. I want to look at them forever. But I continue through the wall and speed away, quickly, before I can make myself turn back. The sun and wind on my face hold no meaning for me.

When I close my eyes I see swirling faces, and I see the color of purple amethyst under running water.

I keep flying, thinking that I might never stop again.

x - x - x

* * *

Did you guys get it? _Please_ tell me you get the twist!


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